7d - AF points

canoesailor

In all the Canon EOSs I've seen the AF point lights up red when you lock on. But they dont in my newly aquired 7d - is this a fault?

I cant find anything about AFPs lighting up red in Canon's hand book.

I've tried AFservo, affocus and oneshot. it will sometimes flash every point in lowlight, but under daylight shooting nothing lights up or flashes and I cant find anything on the custom menu to make it happen.

The LED in the bottom right of the VF lights up when I lock on.

ziggy53

The Canon 7D uses a different technology to enable the viewfinder to display several different "overlays" of information. I believe that 2 of the overlays do provide an indication of the active AF points and regions.

Cycle through the overlays until you see the AF points displayed and make sure that One-Shot mode is also selected. (AI-Servo mode will not indicate focus lock on any Canon dSLR.)

Also, check Custom Function III-8 and make sure that either "0" or "1" is selected. (Select "1" for results similar to your previous cameras.)

colourbox

canoesailor wrote: »

it will sometimes flash every point in lowlight, but under daylight shooting nothing lights up or flashes and I cant find anything on the custom menu to make it happen.

I'm not in front of mine but I think the focus point displays light up red in low light, but in bright light they simply appear as black LCD overlay markings. And the form they take definitely depends on which AF mode you're in, i.e., they don't always look like points.

canoesailor

ziggy53 wrote: »

The Canon 7D uses a different technology to enable the viewfinder to display several different "overlays" of information. I believe that 2 of the overlays do provide an indication of the active AF points and regions.

Cycle through the overlays until you see the AF points displayed and make sure that One-Shot mode is also selected. (AI-Servo mode will not indicate focus lock on any Canon dSLR.)

Also, check Custom Function III-8 and make sure that either "0" or "1" is selected. (Select "1" for results similar to your previous cameras.)

Thanks Ziggy, you pointed me in the right direction but CFn III-8 has three choices "Auto", "1" and "0". choice "1" does make the reds light up, but unlike the 50d it lights all of them not just the one in focus and it is very feint so easy to miss.

I am set up on AF expansion, so the cross of 5 in the centre of the viewfinder is selected, but the 7d still illuminates all points - not just the ones selected.

The "auto" choice only flashes in low light.

The AF points illuminate in AI-focus and One Stop, but not in AI-Servo

In the absence of any info in the handbook or on the net, I had wrongly assumed that "VF illumination" was a Video Function. I now realise it is a View Finder control.

FYO, the 50d has no CFn III - 8, it stops at 7 and there is no VF illumination choice on the other menu pages.

Freezframe

AF points should display!
Menu-(second blue box)-auto focus point display-set and choose.

Brady:D

Ric Grupe

Look at this.

Which can be found here.

I think these videos will clear things up for you.:D

canoesailor

Freezframe wrote: »

Menu-(second blue box)-auto focus point display-set and choose.

Brady:D

I enabled that as soon as I got the camera - no effect

canoesailor

Ric Grupe wrote: »

Look at this.

Which can be found here.

I think these videos will clear things up for you.:D

Thanks Ric but that doesn't tll me how to get the individual AF points to light up, when they lock on, as they do on 50d - 400d - 1dIII etc.


I do not use auto point selection (shown in video) because - it does not restrict itself to selecting the nearest point on the subject - it selects the nearest point in the AF area. That means that a bird in the reeds will often be oof while the reed in the foreground will be pin sharp.

My AF points light up red sometimes but, all of them, not just the one that has locked on and not in bright light.

canoesailor

Thanks to everyone who made suggestions.

But in the early hours of this morning, after trawling through almost all the settings on the menus, I solved the problem.

C-Fn III - 9 needs to be set to "disabled".

Mine was set to "enabled" when I received the camera and flashed all points.

When I set it to "disabled", only the points that were locked-on flashed red.

ziggy53

canoesailor wrote: »

Thanks to everyone who made suggestions.

But in the early hours of this morning, after trawling through almost all the settings on the menus, I solved the problem.

C-Fn III - 9 needs to be set to "disabled".

Mine was set to "enabled" when I received the camera and flashed all points.

When I set it to "disabled", only the points that were locked-on flashed red.

Glad you got it sorted out and thanks for letting us know what worked. clap

kdog

Kind of amusing in retrospect that the custom setting is aptly named "Display all AF Points", isn't it? Somehow I had missed that as well. I just reset mine because that's been bugging me too. So thanks for the info.

canoesailor

kdog wrote: »

Kind of amusing in retrospect that the custom setting is aptly named "Display all AF Points", isn't it? Somehow I had missed that as well. I just reset mine because that's been bugging me too. So thanks for the info.

Yeah - thats why I only put the numbers - the name kinda gives it away. Bit embarrassing really.

Ric Grupe

canoesailor wrote: »

Yeah - thats why I only put the numbers - the name kinda gives it away. Bit embarrassing really.

Funny...I have two 7Ds and they were both set to disabled by default. Guess that's why I really didn't get what you were saying.

Check out "1" under C.fnIV. Here you assign different functions to various buttons. The rear "multi-controller" (see at 33sec. in this video) can be configured to move your AF point manually. I find that very useful for long necked bird composition in particular.

canoesailor

Ric Grupe wrote: »

Funny...I have two 7Ds and they were both set to disabled by default. Guess that's why I really didn't get what you were saying.

Check out "1" under C.fnIV. Here you assign different functions to various buttons. The rear "multi-controller" (see at 33sec. in this video) can be configured to move your AF point manually. I find that very useful for long necked bird composition in particular.

Thanks Ric

Thats understandable, you'd think they'd set them all the same but obviously not.

I can see how the CFn IV - 1 could be useful, I'll have a play with that thanks.

Trouble is I have fingers like builders chisels so it might not work for me